THE players were good, loyal soldiers later on, serving as human shields for their general, but it was a waste of energy. By then, Jim Fassel already had made certain to hop on the griddle all by himself, forcing anyone within booing distance of Giants Stadium to revisit a familiar old question:

Is he on the clock, or isn’t he?

Are the Giants officially playing for his job, now that they have little else to play for? Or will everyone continue to laugh off his foibles and faux pas, as they grow into an ever-incorrigible mountain of evidence for the prosecution?

After this grisly 32-29 overtime loss to the Titans, it’s hard not to come to an instant conclusion:

Let the Gentleman Jim Watch begin anew. Completely on merit.

“I make a lot of decisions during a game,” Fassel said. “You can second guess any damn one you want.”

The problem is, Fassel makes it easy. Too easy. From the first week of the season, when he allowed the 49ers to merrily march down the field at game’s end without bothering to halt the clock, Fassel has been exposed, week after week, loss after loss, as a deficient game coach whose strategies too often go exactly the opposite of their intentions.

Yesterday was just the latest example of a chronic problem, one more sliver of testimony that proves that Fassel, for all his oft-cited motivational skill, is an overmatched game tactician who just slammed the final door on his team’s season by displaying a slavish dependence on that stupid card that dictates when and where to attempt two-point conversions.

Leading 26-14, the Giants had officially risen from ruins, were somehow primed to improve to 7-5 on the season, keeping themselves in the thick of the playoff chase. Logic says when you’re ahead, don’t do anything too fancy, too crazy, kick the extra point, take the 13-point lead and let your team try to finish off the game’s final 14:19.

But the damned card says something else.

It says to try to make it a 14-point game, even though going for two is, at best, a break-even proposition. The Giants went for two and failed. The Titans scored a touchdown, but the Giants answered with a field goal – a kick that should have made the score 30-21. That salts the game away. That gives the Giants a critical win and a head start on the five-week gauntlet that ends the season.

Instead, it was 29-21.

And as soon as it was an eight-point margin, you knew something strange was going to happen. Strange things always follow teams – and coaches – who take senseless gambits. The beneficiaries always make them pay.

The Cardinals did in Phoenix back on Sept. 29, when Fassel overruled Sean Payton’s wish to have Kerry Collins take a knee before the half of a 7-0 game, called for a pass, and watched the game – if not the season – instantly go sour. The Texans did in Houston last week, when Fassel eschewed a ground attack that had gotten the Giants to the brink of a game-winning field goal. Fassel called another pass. Collins threw another pick.

And the Titans sure did in East Rutherford yesterday afternoon.

“A lot of people will point to the loss and put the finger on the head coach, as it always is and always will be,” Tiki Barber said. “But the bottom line is, it’s the guys on the field who have to make the plays and they’re the ones who should be responsible.”

Oh, they can take a hit here, too. Start with Barber, who at one point early in the second half actually had 11 carries for a total of minus-6 yards, emblematic of a running game that deserted the Giants on a windy day that begged for clock dominance.

Please do not forget the defense, as quiet and unaccountable all day as their leader, Michael Strahan, was later on, when he brusquely offered, “The offense was great, the defense played like [bleep]” as his lone postgame valedictory.

But it is impossible to tell the story of these Giants without listing the mounting calamities attached to the head coach. These are not all accidents. These are not all the terrible misfortunes of a guy cursed with bad luck. After awhile, they point to a very real and very simple conclusion.

The coach had better start making better, smarter, more successful decisions. In a hurry.